Free energy from the quantum vacuum
KNOWING how much Feedback appreciates pellucid examples of totally rational scientific exposition, Colin Osborne directs us to the website , where we can read in copious detail about Tom Bearden鈥檚 Motionless Electromagnetic Generator. This wonderful device, a package 10 centimetres long that promises to deliver 2.5 kilowatts of free energy harvested from the quantum vacuum, must be real: it is the subject of US patent 6362718.
To our untutored eye, it looks like a perfectly normal electrical transformer with a permanent magnet at its centre. So what鈥檚 holding up the cornucopia of free energy? The lack of $12 million in development money, apparently, and the insistence of potential funders on engaging conventional electrical engineers 鈥� who everyone knows are blinkered. These engineers just don鈥檛 understand how the 鈥済iant negentropy mechanism continuously replenishes the A-potential as fast as energy is extracted from it鈥�. Nor can they see that 鈥渄ue to the peculiar nature of the Aharonov-Bohm effect that generates the excess energy inputs to the MEG from its immediately adjacent space, we are dealing with multiple energy inputs and signals to every coil and every wire鈥︹��
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When we dig around we find a host of carping critics, including arch-debunker James Randi. Shame on them. They will surely get their comeuppance when Bearden publishes his promised papers 鈥減ointing out suggested changes in Aristotelian logic and some of its shortcomings鈥�.
鈥淜urt Hartman wonders whether the sign he found taped to an entrance door will help any students find the class it advertised 鈥� it said 鈥淟earn to read鈥濃��
THE word 鈥渃hemical鈥� has become such a byword for nastiness that those who try to sell us things that have chemicals in 鈥� as opposed to things that are 鈥渘atural鈥� (which also have chemicals in, of course) 鈥� are in something of a quandary.
Two solutions have been adopted. One comes from Waitrose, the UK supermarket. Nigel Russel bought a memorial light candle there which was not only described as kosher, but was 鈥渕ade of pure chemicals only鈥�. So that鈥檚 all right then.
Meanwhile Henry Bewley noticed that UK health store Holland & Barrett cannot pretend its ABC-plus multivitamin and multimineral formula is 鈥渘atural鈥�, but neither is it keen to say that it is 鈥渕ade of chemicals鈥�. So in a neat piece of linguistic footwork it labels the product 鈥淣aturally inspired鈥�.
FOR years the photo industry has been telling people to stop stockpiling picture negatives and prints in a shoebox under the stairs. It鈥檚 far better to use a digital camera and store your snapshots electronically, they鈥檝e been saying.
鈥淧eople used to average four rolls of film a year. Now they are taking huge numbers of digital snapshots,鈥� Pierre Schaeffer of Eastman Kodak tells Feedback. 鈥淏ut they aren鈥檛 thinking about storage and indexing and security. People think their photos are as secure as they always were. When we explain that they risk losing their pictures when they change their PC or it crashes or is infected with a virus, they get very angry.
鈥淲hen Microsoft releases the next version of Windows during 2006, many people will need to upgrade to a new PC. They will throw out their old one and then find they have lost the first years of their children鈥檚 lives. We are facing a Y2K millennium bug of imaging.鈥�
So what is Kodak advising? 鈥淚f in doubt, print it out,鈥� says Schaeffer. So we should all go back to storing pictures in a shoebox under the stairs. Shareholders will be pleased. Kodak sells digital cameras, digital storage and the paper to make digital prints.
OUR mention of the nested acronym in the name of the UK鈥檚 OCR examinations board 鈥� that鈥檚 Oxford, Cambridge and RSA, and that鈥檚 the Royal Society of Arts (17 December) 鈥� reminded Michael Heaney of a strange, now-vanished, feature on the board鈥檚 website. He was deeply puzzled at references in their physics exam papers to 鈥渙crawatts鈥� and, if memory serves, 鈥渙crabytes鈥�. It took him a little while to realise that OCR had recently engulfed the Midland Examining Group (MEG) and had been updating its web pages accordingly 鈥� and automatically.
INHABITANTS of the Lateu settlement on Tegua Island in Vanuatu, Steve Shinners read in The Australian last month, 鈥渟tarted dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 548.64 metres inland鈥�. We can only admire their dedication to precision in the face of global-warming-induced adversity.
FINALLY, Paul Dove鈥檚 idea of naming reverse concepts with reverse words, such as 鈥渒nilb鈥� 鈥� to open one鈥檚 eyes and quickly close them again (19 November) 鈥� reminds Ron Hinde of a cartoon he saw 20 years ago. Two white-coated people are walking past a laboratory over which hangs a word balloon with 鈥淢辞辞产!鈥� in it. One says to the other, 鈥淪ounds like an implosion.鈥�